Chinamada Cave Houses & Las Carboneras — A Hike from Punta del Hidalgo

This Anaga hike climbs to Chinamada, a hamlet high in the mountains of Tenerife where people still live in houses carved into the rock. The trail runs up from the coast at Punta del Hidalgo, on to the greener slopes of Las Carboneras, and back down to the sea — past the Mirador Aguaide to a finish at Playa de los Troches. Whether you're here for one of Anaga's most dramatic coast-to-mountain trails or just to see how people still live in houses cut into the rock, this is the whole route, unfiltered. 🥾 TRAIL SPECS: Route: Punta del Hidalgo – Chinamada – Las Carboneras – Return Trail: PR-TF 10 (Punta del Hidalgo section) + Las Carboneras spur Distance: 20 km Ascent: 1000 m Difficulty: easy (not technical) but demanding — the climb out of Punta del Hidalgo does most of the damage, with a few mildly exposed sections up top 📍 TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 00:35 Punta del Hidalgo 02:20 About the cave houses 03:54 First (exposed!) viewpoint & drone shots 05:01 Cave with a bed good? No. 05:37 The fragrance. Full bloom: Incienso Canario 06:26 The ancient stairs and Guanche fitness 07:45 Arriving Chinamada - the cave village 08:22 Lunch at La Cueva restaurant 09:00 On to Las Carboneras, fueled 10:23 Above Las Carboneras & drone shots 11:57 Back in Chinamada - Mirador Aguaide 12:54 The FIERCE guardians of Chinamada 13:40 Playa de los Troches at sunset - ending A few things worth knowing. Chinamada is an old aboriginal settlement — around thirty cave dwellings, several still lived in today. The stairways on this trail aren't laid stone; they're cut into the softer volcanic rock, along a line the Guanches walked long before anyone carved a step into it. Las Carboneras — quieter, greener, and to my eye the more beautiful of the two — takes its name from charcoal, laurel-forest wood burned down in mounds called carboneras, and had no road to it until well into the 20th century; the terraced valley is still worked for potatoes. The lizard sunning itself on the rocks is the lagarto tizón, endemic to Tenerife. Filmed in Anaga Rural Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, in May 2026 — full blooming season.